October 1
Read Ephesians 2:1-5
We should bear in mind the fact that every husband and wife brings forth a child that by nature is spiritually dead. For God told Adam, that the day he committed his first sin, he would die. And that does not merely mean that he would die physically. He would, and did, die spiritually the moment he committed his first sin. Physical death came much later; but spiritual death came at once! And the awesome fact is that every descendant of a man and woman comes into being spiritually dead. But the comforting truth, in the text quoted above, is that God will make spiritually alive those whom He eternally chose, to be those for whom Christ would die. Here is a very, very comforting truth, presented by God, Who is rich in His mercy, and loves all those whom He chose in Christ.
October 2
Read Genesis 3:15.
Giving us spiritual life, God works enmity in us against Satan and sin. We do not change ourselves spiritually. We are changed by God’s grace. And we owe God thanks every minute of our new spiritual lives, for our hatred against Satan and sin, and for our love of God, quickened by His grace. As we read in Ephesians 2:5, God quickened us together with Christ. Satan got all the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve to walk in sin by nature. And the awesome question is whether we find in our lives that walk of love toward God. Are you sure that you were born again? Your walk will reveal whether God began spiritual life in you.
October 3
Read Psalm 139:14.
There are two truths which we must believe and maintain. As we read in Scripture, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God works upon us as His elect, in a most wonderful way. He performs marvellous works of grace upon us and in us. And it is because of this work of His grace that we have the comforting truth, which moves us to sing: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below.” Do you sing that with your heart, as well as with your mouth? Do you look forward to doing it so fully and constantly, when He brings you into His house on every Sabbath Day? Do you every day thank God for His gift of salvation? Or is your “worship of God” what you do on Sunday only?
October 4
Read I Corinthians 15:57.
In Scripture we read the comforting truth that God, being rich in His mercy and grace, gives His elect the victory, which brings them into heavenly blessedness. By nature we are born as spiritually dead. But our God causes every one of those, whom He chose in Christ, to be born with a spiritual life, and thus with heavenly blessedness. He causes every one of His elect to love Himself, and to find joy in serving Him. That truth we find in Ephesians 2:5. We, by God’s grace are quickened together with Christ, revealing His grace upon us. Do you sing a new song to Jehovah, and thank Him for the wonders He promises His elect?
October 5
Read Ephesians 2:6-10
In His grace God raises us up spiritually, already in this life; and He will, when Christ returns, both bring us with body and soul into that coming New Jerusalem. He saves us from all our guilt, but also from all our love of sin. We will be made to sit in heavenly places. And as Paul wrote it—that is, God wrote it through Paul—we will assuredly sit in heavenly places. This will be the gift of God’s grace, the gift Christ earned for us. Salvation is one hundred percent a gift of God’s grace. We do deserve everlasting punishment. But by His grace God saves us through faith, which is His gift unto us, and in no way is our gift to Him.
October 6
Read John 1:16.
Hold on tightly to the truth that in God’s fullness we receive grace for grace. What God does in His grace is what He does in His love and kindness, upon those who by nature deserve everlasting torment in hell! Bear in mind the awesome truth that, after they fell into their first sin, Adam and Eve deserved everlasting torment in hell! One’s sin calls for everlasting punishment. The comforting truth, therefore, is that God promised to deal graciously with all His elect. And He sent Christ Jesus, His Son, to blot out the guilt of those whom He eternally chose in Christ. Still more, He sent His Son to earn for us a blessed life, far higher than Adam and Eve had before they fell into sin. It will be an everlasting blessedness.
October 7
Read Psalm 23:1-3
The most precious gift for us is to have God as our Shepherd. That precious possession we lost through Adam and Eve. God told them that, if they would disobey Him, they would die. Look up Genesis 2:17. That did not merely mean that they would die physically. They died spiritually. And in His grace God told Satan that He would save those whom He had chosen in Christ. Upon that grace of God we depend. As we read in Ephesians 2:8 we are saved by grace. We are not saved by our own works, but by that which God does in His grace. Confess God, therefore, to be your Shepherd; and also therefore all of your salvation to be the gift of God’s grace. We, through Satan, earned everlasting torment. By God’s grace we have peace which we shall never lose.
October 8
Read Ephesians 2:11-16.
The awesome truth is that by God’s grace we are saved. The whole human race was by Satan caused to die spiritually. But by God’s grace some of the human race are saved through His Son, Who came into our flesh, without an earthly father, and thus without any guilt, and with not sinful nature, as we all do. Most of mankind are, and can properly be called, anti-Christian, that is “against Christ.” For they are without true faith and spiritual hope. And nothing that they hope for will come. Foolishly they may even commit suicide, thinking that they will escape misery. We, however, by God’s grace will enter into an everlasting blessed peace. Thank God for this promise.
October 9
Read Romans 8:24-25.
Whether we do from God, receive that precious gift of hope, which God gives to His elect, depends upon God’s eternal will. So often we do say “I hope so.” And we merely mean that we desire something we do not yet have. But the hope of the child of God, having been born again, is certain expectation. To hope is to wait with the assurance of its coming completely, and most assuredly. We hope for what Christ earned for us, and for what we are absolutely sure He will return with, for our everlasting enjoyment. Do you have that hope for salvation and all its blessedness? By grace we are saved through faith. By grace, are you saved by God’s gift of faith to you?
October 10
Read Matthew 27:35-37.
The basic truth, which we should hold on to tightly, is that Christ Jesus, our Saviour, realized salvation for us by His cross. He had no personal sins which called for His crucifixion. The unbelieving Jews accused Him of sin, and wanted Him to be crucified for their carnal joy. But He reconciled us to God by His cross, removing all our guilt, which calls for our everlasting punishment in hell. What a blessed, comforting truth! Christ died on His cross so that we not only need no cross, but will live with Christ in heavenly glory. Does that truth fill you with a blessed confidence and joy?
October 11
Read Ephesians 2:17-22.
The awesome question is not whether we heard a man preach the truth that Christ saves us from sins and punishment. That promise we have. But the awesome question is whether God speaks that truth in our hearts, and causes us to believe that truth, causing us to be born again spiritually, and whether we are thankful for that comforting truth. What is so absolutely necessary is that God causes our hearts—not merely our tongues—to say: “All that I am I owe to Thee, Thy wisdom, Lord has fashioned me.” Yes, sing that comforting truth, presented in Psalter Numbers 383:1. In His grace God gave us that truth, and the joy that causes us to sing it.
October 12
Read Psalm 139:14.
God’s work, through His Son, Jesus Christ, is that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That fearfulness is being full of awe and thankfulness for the salvation God began in us. Very correctly, every Sunday, God has His elect, who have been born again, sing: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.” And, when we sing that, it must be the expression of our hearts, and not merely of our tongues and lips. Being fearfully and wonderfully made, we praise God, having Him in our hearts and minds, with a spiritual joy, which He implanted in us.
October 13
Read Acts 11:21-22.
Are you correctly called a Christian? You may be called that by fellow citizens; but the awesome question is whether God calls you that. In Ephesians 2:19 we do find that comforting truth, concerning some men. There we read: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” By His Spirit we are caused to be born again spiritually. And the important fact is whether He has made us to be such. The awesome question is whether God calls us to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven; and whether we are those, of whom it is true, that we are those to whom God’s blessings flow; whether we truly are Christians.
October 14
Read II Corinthians 6:16.
Our God in this passage calls us to be His holy temple. Now the Old Testament temple was the place where God revealed Himself, and the saints had sweet communion with Him. As we read in Ephesians 2:22 the believers are “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” As those born again, we have sweet communion with God. The awesome question is whether we experience that communion, that is, have sweet communion with God. How often during the day do you have God, not only in your mind, but also in your heart? The question is not merely whether you have God in your mind. Is He in your heart? Are you a child of God, because He caused you to be born again, this time born spiritually? Do you eagerly go to Him in prayer, and thank Him for that which He gave you, and into which He led you? Or do you find fault in what He did for you? Do you go to sleep at night, confident that all is well, and working for your good?
October 15
Read Psalm 23.
A tremendously important fact and truth is presented to us by God through David, namely, that God is our Shepherd, taking care of us, and causing all things to work together for our good. Hold on tightly to that truth presented in the verses you read. Since God is our Shepherd, we have everything that happens as a blessing. We may have things that trouble our flesh. But do you believe that you lack nothing good that He sends upon you? There is much trouble for our flesh in this life. But are you convinced that God is your shepherd, and that He is, in love, taking care of you? Truly we want nothing in our lives, whereby God is not working it for our good. Sing that truth again: “All that I am I owe to Thee. Thy wisdom, Lord, hath, fashioned me.”
October 16
Read John 10:1-4.
Since God is our shepherd, we, every minute of our earthly lives get an experience which He, in His love and grace, brings upon us. As we read in I Peter 5:4 “When the chief shepherd shall come, and the sheep shall receive a crown of glory, that fadeth not away.” Indeed, when Christ, the chief shepherd, appears, we shall receive that crown of glory, that never fadeth away. And we can be sure that nothing that happens to us in this life can or will prevent us from getting the glory which God promises us. He is the Almighty God; and no one can, and nothing can, keep us from the everlasting glory, which God promises us. He is the ALMIGHTY GOD, and no one, and nothing, can keep us one step from the glory which He promises His elect. He is THE SHEPHERD. He always was and always will be such.
October 17
Read Psalm 46:1.
All of mankind know what physical help we need. It is obvious that, regardless of how much money we have, we are on the way to death, and the loss of all our earthly possessions. We all have troubles, as the Psalmist here declares. But the child of God is here assured that every child of God has refuge and strength. As we noted in Psalm 23, David very correctly states that the Lord is our Shepherd; and therefore we want nothing that is not good, but only what brings us blessings. Get that wonderful truth. We want nothing. Having God as our Saviour all is well, for He has all things under His control, and loves every one of His elect. Do you know God as your shepherd? He is almighty, and constantly faithful in fulfilling all His promises. Read Psalm 130:7-8.
October 18
Read Psalm 116:8.
The awesome question is not whether God has already restored our bodies. Indeed He promises to do so, and will give us that blessing. But the question is whether He is pleased to deliver our souls from spiritual death, which we have at birth, because Adam and Eve were brought by Satan into spiritual death. But it pleases God to save the lives of every one of His elect, and that already in this life. Having our souls saved from spiritual death, we shall be saved with body, as well as soul, when Christ returns. Take hold of that blessed comforting truth presented in Psalm 116:9. There we read: “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” We, by God’s grace, will live in the New Jerusalem, when it comes.
October 19
Read Psalm 34:10.
The basic element of our salvation is that God restores our souls in this life. Yes, He will restore our bodies when Christ returns. But we need to have our souls restored in this life. Hold on tightly to that truth in Psalm 23. The Lord is—not will become—our Shepherd, and we His sheep. Do you know any earthly sheep, that decided who his parents would be? Do you however believe that you are God’s sheep? Are you not only aware of, but rejoicing in that blessed truth that you are one of God’s sheep? He brought you into being as one of His sheep. And He also causes every one of these sheep to know, and rejoice in the truth that he is one of God’s sheep. Praise Him then for this blessed gift.
October 20
Read Psalm 130:1-8.
As pointed out before, we hope for everything that God promises His elect and that will be fulfilled. Now to hope is not merely to desire. To hope for what God promises us is to be convinced that He will give it to us. In fact to hope is to expect. By God’s grace we expect what He promises. He is not dependent on our acceptance. We depend upon His work of causing us to desire, with absolute assurance that He will give it to us, causing it to become ours. Do we not read in Psalm 23:1 that, because God is our shepherd, we will not lack what we need? Even though we walk through the valley where the shadow of death falls, as believers we are absolutely sure that every part of God’s promise will be fulfilled. We wait for what God promises us because He is God, the Almighty Father Who loves His elect.
October 21
Read Revelation 21:1-4.
As we are taught, and as we considered a few days ago, we, as those God eternally chose, are confident that we will dwell with God eternally in the New Jerusalem. By God’s grace we are absolutely sure that God will wipe away all the tears of our eyes, and that we shall dwell with God in that coming Kingdom of Heaven. We shall, with body as well as soul, be closer to God than the holy angels, who are now with Him in heaven. God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. He will raise us up above all the angels that have been with Him in heaven since the week He created all things. What a blessing lies ahead for all the elect. What a gift for which we should and will be thankful, praising God’s Name, from Whom all blessings flow.
October 22
Read Romans 8:1-4.
What was not, the day Adam and Eve were created, now is today; and it calls for every child of God to sing His praises, because of its truth and blessedness. Adam and Eve had no guilt, as created, but they were condemned because of their sin. They had a blessed, pleasing life, knowing God and walking in their love toward Him. But Satan came as a subtle enemy, hating God, and wanting Adam and Eve also to hate Him. He did get them to hate God and in it to sin against Him. And the awesome question we should ask is whether we listen to Satan, and walk in hatred against God. Are we living according to our flesh? We should get down on our knees, and pray to God for strength to live in love toward Him. Our calling is to fight against sin; and the lie of Satan, which gets man to believe; and the evil wherein to walk.
October 23
Read Romans 8:5.
What a blessed truth we find here. Minding the things of the Spirit is walking in love of and toward God. Sad to say, however, we still do have sin in our hearts and minds. Satan is controlling us in sinful ways, revealing hatred of God, rather than love of Him. But by God’s grace we, as born again children of God, must examine our hearts and minds, and pray to God for hatred of sin, and for love toward Him. Our calling is to pray to God for spiritual help, and for the guidance of His Spirit into ways of love toward Him. That we must not do simply and merely on Sunday, but every day from the moment that we wake up. Our calling is to pray for God’s Spirit to make us want and seek spiritual purity. Do you do so the minute that you awake in the morning?
October 24
Read Romans 8:6.
Get that blessed truth, and hold on tightly to it. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Do you want peace with God? No, the question is not merely whether you want God to deal with you peacefully. Do you want your heart to love God and peacefully walk, every day and every moment, loving God and keeping His commandments? Do you simply want salvation in the sense of escape from the punishment which you deserve? The question surely is whether you want to walk in love of God. We were created in order to walk in such love of God. But Satan got all of us to be spiritually dead, in the sense that we did not love God, but hating Him walk and live against Him in all our thinking and willing. Do you want to be spiritually minded, and walk in love toward God every day, and every minute of every day?
October 25
Read Romans 8:14
What an awesome and significant truth our God presents here through the Apostle Paul. Absolutely every bit of our salvation depends upon God, and was designed by God, before we were born. Yes, when salvation begins in us, it is because God began it in us in His grace. We did not think and will any part of salvation until God began that thinking and willing in us. Satan got Adam and Eve, and also all their descendants, to be his sons and daughters. Our thankfulness, for every bit of salvation, is God’s work upon all of us, and for all our knowledge of having been chosen unto it by God. Indeed we must be thankful for being given thanks for that salvation. God owes us nothing. We owe Him thanks for every bit of our salvation, and for our desire for it. We are led by the Spirit of God unto all proper thankfulness.
October 26
Read Romans 8:24-25.
That we hope to be saved means that we depend upon God for this desire as well as for the beginning of it. We must hold on tightly to the truth that we owe God thanks, for the desire for salvation as well as the salvation itself. We are not saved because we hope for it. We are thankful for it, because we believe that all that we are, we owe to God. As pointed out before: “All that I am I owe to Thee, Thy wisdom, Lord, hath fashioned me.” By nature we do not see that salvation and hope for it. The Spirit makes us groan for salvation. Absolutely every part of our salvation is God’s gift to us. Not simply on Sunday, and in church, but every day we should with our hearts sing praise to God, from Whom all our blessings flow. Do you have that thankfulness every day, and say it in your prayers?
October 27
Read Romans 8:28.
Here we have a most wonderful and comforting truth concerning our salvation. When God begins salvation in us He causes us to know that all things work together for good in us. All that happens is not going to please our flesh; and to die is to remove us from all our earthly possessions. But the blessed and comforting truth is that sickness and death work together for our good, in the sense that we are going to be with God in the blessed life of peace and holiness. We will be freed completely from Satan and sin; and we shall have sweet communion with God. Take hold then of that blessed truth in the verse read. All things shall work together, so that we have sweet communion with God in His house of many mansions. A sweeter gift there is not for us.
October 28
Romans 8:29-31.
Here we have a most blessed and comforting truth. All things have worked together for our good. We reach the blessedness which God predestinated us to receive. Find comfort in the truth that all this blessedness is absolutely sure, because the almighty, unchangeable God has promised it, but also begun it. Find comfort also in the truth that, through His Son, God has already realized such blessedness of body and soul. Hold on tightly also to the truth that our God Who promises this blessedness is the almighty, unchangeable God. No one and nothing can stop Him from fulfilling all His promises. And as the I AM, He will not change His mind or will. He will not turn against us, but turn us completely, as our God and Father. He spared not His own Son; and will most assuredly not spare us everlasting blessedness.
October 29
Read Romans 8:32.
A truth which we should maintain, and never brush aside, is that God freely gives us all the elements of our salvation. We must believe that, if we are going to enjoy our salvation. But believing that is only part of our salvation. We do not buy salvation, or get it because of what we do. We buy absolutely nothing from God. He gives us all of salvation, and as we read the other day, we are wonderfully and fearfully made. Faith is one hundred percent a gift of God’s grace. As we read in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, faith is the gift of God’s grace. It is not something that we give to God. It is that which God begins and gives to His elect. We owe God thanks for working faith in us. As we correctly sing: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.”
October 30
Read Romans 8:35.
The awesome, blessed truth is that the salvation God has begun in us shall never leave us. Satan is trying very hard, by men and false doctrines, to get us against God, rather than to walk with Him in the love which He gave us. Get that truth, and hold on to it tightly: Neither we, nor Satan and his evil soldiers, can take from us the salvation which God began in us. Just look up Psalm 48:1. There we read: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, on the mountain of His holiness.” Sing then with your heart as well as with your mouth: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.” Having salvation begun in us, we will look for its coming fullness.
October 31
Read Romans 8:38-39.
What a blessed, comforting truth do we find here! Nothing and no one shall separate us from God and His grace. Bear in mind that the name Jehovah means I AM. There is absolutely no change taking place in Him. We, nor Satan, nor any fallen angels can change God’s mind and will. He fulfills perfectly every part of His eternal counsel. Remember that every day, and never question what God causes to take place. Never doubt His promises. He is the I AM, and rightly we sing: “All that I am I owe to Thee, Thy wisdom Lord, hath fashioned me.” Sing that in your heart, and you will cause your body to walk in love toward Him. Look forward to the day when He fulfills all His promises concerning our salvation. Praise God from Who wall blessings flow.